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IKEA head of marketing Tze Kuen Yeong heads to H&M

Tze Kuen Yeong (pictured), head of marketing at IKEA Southeast Asia, has left the company to take on a new marketing role at H&M Singapore. Marketing understands that she is to be replacing Caroline Fersing, head of marketing of H&M Singapore and Malaysia, who is taking a new role internally.

Both IKEA and H&M declined to comment on the appointments.

Yeong has been with IKEA since 2002, rising through the ranks and taking on roles such as assistant marketing manager, advertising and promotions manager and deputy regional marketing manager. She was elevated to head of marketing in 2013.

Yeong was behind the memorable marketing stunts such as when the furniture giant IKEA took advantage of sensational remarks made by Josephine Teo, senior minister of state for finance and transport about her views on having children requires having a flat first. In less that 48 hours, IKEA published a GIF image showing a cabinet, wardrobe, chair and stool shaking or vibrating, with the headline “The ‘very small space’ collection”.

She also stood firm by the company when IKEA came under fire for partnering up with Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) controversial pastor Lawrence Khong.The partnership saw the store offer promotions for his magic show to its members. Khong has been in the limelight for openly opposing homosexuality and campaigning to maintain a law that criminalises homosexuality. This stirred strong reactions from netizens.

She also worked closely on campaigns such as “Recipes for Delicious Kitchens” to highlight IKEA’ s brand new IKEA METOD Kitchen range. With the help of creative partner BBH, the company created miniature sized IKEA products.

In November last year, the furniture giant also selected The Hoffman Agency Asia Pacific as its public relations agency-of-record. The appointment comes as IKEA Singapore seeks to strengthen its media outreach and inject creative approaches to its current PR communications.